Miracles abound at Stoneham Theatre fundraising show
Published on December 12th, 2007
STONEHAM, MA - The three talented performers at the Stoneham Theatre – Leigh Barrett, Kathy St. George and Robert Saoud -- were belting out the crowd-pleasing “Let it snow” during a fund-raising benefit show last night when they got to the usually innocuous line of the song about “the fire being so delightful.”
The words were changed since the fundraiser was put together to help defray some of the costs associated with a four alarm fire that took place last month and damaged their building while gutting the building that contained their next door neighbor The Evergreen Florist – and was also put together as a giant thank you to the fire departments at each of the eight neighboring towns: Stoneham, Malden, Melrose, Medford, Winchester, Reading, North Reading and Woburn.
The three singers stopped the traditional Christmas Carol dead in its tracks and expunged the word “fire” from the song while changing the line instead to something about the “theatre being so delightful.”
It was a harmless funny little aside from a 90 minute show designed as a “Miracle on Main St” fundraiser for both the theatre and the Hundred Club of Mass Inc.—a charitable organization designed to benefit the families of fallen firefighters throughout Massachusetts.
Fire Chiefs Michael Murphy from Malden, Greg Burns from Reading and John Nash from Winchester were unable to attend last night night’s event, but chief Joe Rolli from Stoneham, Chief Donald Ryan from Melrose, Richard Harris from North Reading, David Parr from Wakefield and Paul Tortolano from Woburn
“On Oct 23 we had a fire that badly damaged the building next door to us and caused quite a bit of smoke and water damage to our building, though we were very lucky that the firefighters from the eight surrounding towns did a fantastic job in keeping the fire from spreading,” said Stoneham Theater Producing Artistic Director Weylin Symes, who through some major efforts was still able to open their Forever Blonde show three days after the fire took place. “We really came to realize – when we paid a visit to Stoneham Fire Captain Scott Weber – just how close this building came to suffering some long term damage due to the fire.
“It was eye-opening,” said Symes. “It made us realize just how special the Stoneham Theatre has become in the eight years since its inception, and this night was put together to both celebrate the theatre and celebrate the firefighters who saved the theatre and allowed us to put together a great night of holiday music.”
The chiefs in attendance all entered the building to a theatre-full of applause once the show began and appreciated the heartfelt attempt by the theater to thank each hardworking – and sometimes undermanned – department.
“I think it was a great way for the theatre and the community to recognize the efforts of all the different departments coming together for mutual aid,” said Rolli, as he looked around at all the neighboring chiefs prior to the event’s start.
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